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DragonCon has been running for over 30 years now, drawing tens of thousands of attendees to one of the oldest and best cons on the planet, the highlight of which is often the giant cosplay parade that weaves its way through downtown Atlanta.

We’re so accustomed to modern cosplay photography being slick and bright and clean that it’s easy to settle into the idea that’s the only way to take photos of people in costume. But this series of shots from this year’s DragonCon shows that a change of hardware can make a big difference to how we see cosplayers on…

DragonCon, one of the biggest conventions in the US, is going down this long weekend, and among the cosplayers in attendance is rapper T-Pain, living his absolute best cosplay life as Tekken’s Leroy Smith.

Anime Expo, held every year in Los Angeles (at the same venue E3 is at), is the biggest anime show in North America, having run for 27 years and attracting over 110,000 people through the gates in 2019.

Most of the time cosplay is about having fun and hanging out with friends. Sometimes, though, it gets competitive, and there’s no bigger prize for serious devotees than the World Cosplay Summit, held every year in Japan.

German cosplayer Kes von Puch and her boyfriend Marcel are to thank for this incredible piece of God of War cosplay, which didn’t just require the creation of a costume, but the transformation of a man.

Japan Expo, held every year in Paris, is one of the biggest nerd shows on the planet. Indeed, it claims to be the biggest celebration of Japanese culture outside of Japan itself, with around 250,000 attendees heading to Paris-Nord Villepinte between July 4-7.

Anime Matsuri is a huge show that takes place every year in Houston, drawing more than 40,000 fans through the doors. Despite serious allegations levelled against the show’s organiser in recent years, ranging from sexual harassment to financial impropriety, it was still held on the weekend of 13-16 June.

This is Finnish cosplayer Hapsu as Will Mackenzie, one of the two stars of The Long Dark’s story mode. If you’re going to cosplay as someone destined to freeze to death in an icy wilderness, Finland is as good a place as any to start.

You see a lot of good Spider-Man cosplay, because it’s an easy one to do well. What’s not easy to do is get the character’s newer designs 1:1, since they’ve got fancy moving eyes, but Hong Kong cosplayer Cavin Creations has gone and done just that.